Do Gadflies Dream of Electric Sharks?
by SiFi270
Summary: Nearly twenty years after Yukko and her friends have graduated and gone their separate ways, she finds herself reunited with Mai, and soon the rest of her friends, under some extraordinary circumstances. She soon finds herself caught up in such bizarre situations as attempted murder, unrequited love, and a shark's ability to solve any social and romantic issue imaginable.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So I just finished watching this and IT'S THE BEST ANI... NO, THE BEST TV SHOW I'VE EVER SEEN, AND THERE WASN'T ENOUGH OF IT SO I HAVE TO MAKE MORE.

Frig Azuhamlet... for now, anyway.

* * *

Mai Minakami graduated from university nearly twenty years ago.

Despite this, nobody seemed quite sure what she'd been doing with her life since then, and rumors had been floating around for a while that not even she knew the answer to that.

These rumors, surprisingly enough, were actually true. Since before she even graduated, Mai Minakami had never once realized that what she was doing was waiting. Even if she did, she wouldn't have known what it was she was waiting for. If she, or anyone else did, they might have been somewhat disturbed.

Without even realizing it, she was waiting until Professor Shinonome was old enough to pursue a romantic relationship with.

Not helping her obliviousness to this revelation was the fact that she hadn't seen the professor in over ten years now, and didn't even know where to begin looking for her. She used to visit Shinonome Laboratories on a regular basis, but upon making new friends at college, she began to drift apart from Nano, and by extension the professor who had created her.

What Mai didn't realize, and this time had no chance of realizing, was that fate would allow them to meet again fairly soon.

However, fate felt like toying with her, just as she had toyed with many others over the years. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it 'karma'?

"Mai! Selamat pagi!"

Failing to recognize the voice, Mai turned turned towards its source, immediately finding herself face to face with one of her best friends in high school, Yuuko Aioi.

"Hello..." Mai responded, speaking with the same deceptively gentle voice that Yukko could never have forgotten. "What brings you here?"

Yukko shrugged. "I'm not really sure what 'brings me' anywhere in life..." She sighed. "Of course, that's assuming that I'm going anywhere in life to begin with."

"You're telling me..." Mai rolled her eyes.

"I guess I've been wandering aimlessly for a while now." Yukko continued. "Ever since Mio said it was dangerous for me to be with her, and that I should run, I haven't really put much thought into where I'm going."

"With her?" Mai repeated. "As in, _with her_ with her?"

"What?" Her eyes widened. "No! She's already married, for crying out lo..." She paused. "Wait, was that a serious question, or are you just trying to get my goat again? Because I'll be honest, I've actually kind of missed that."

Mai lowered her head. "Nowadays, I haven't been able to distinguish them as easily. But... What's happening with Mio, anyway? It doesn't sound like things are going too well for her."

"I don't really know." Yukko admitted. "I don't know for certain, but I _think_..." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "...I think someone's trying to kill her."

"What?" Mai managed to perfectly imitate Yukko's shocked reaction from less than minute ago. "And you just ran away?"

"That's what she told me to do! I figured, if she doesn't want me to get involved in something like that, then it's for my own good!"

"For your..." Mai looked as though she was about to slap her, but then she stopped herself and cleared her throat. "Let's not jump to conclusions. Is there any indication whatsoever that someone might be trying to kill her?"

"Well," Yukko said, "do you remember at the graduation ceremony, when she confessed her feelings to Mr. Sasahara?"

Mai nodded.

"Well, that's who she married." she said. "You know how many people were after him. So for the first few months after the wedding, she's kind of nervous about everything. Whenever something fell, she'd run away and cower behind him. I always figured it was because she was expecting a baby or something, but... One day, she came up to me, and she seemed a lot calmer than usual. That's when she told me I had to run away."

"I see." Mai placed a hand to her chin. "Did she give these instructions to anyone else? Like Nano, perhaps?"

"Not that I know of." She answered. "If she did, then I doubt we'd be able to find them."

Although the resulting change in Mai's facial expression was minute, it was clear enough that she was distressed by this. For a while, she merely stared into space, leading Yukko to briefly wonder if she had x-ray vision or something. Finally, after an entire five minutes, she spoke again.

"Our first priority is finding Mio. Once we've found her, we can solve whatever problem she's having, and then we can find out the whereabouts of Nano and the professor."

Yukko pondered this for only a moment, but in that moment she became deeply ashamed for blindly following Mio's instructions. With a determined look on her face, she grabbed Mai's hand and nodded.

"Let's do this."

* * *

A/N: This is me before I started this chapter: "SIFI YOU CAN'T START ON YET ANOTHER STORY"

This is me halfway through the chapter: "I think I'm really on to something with this one!"


	2. Chapter 2

Nano Shinonome disappeared from the Shinonome household nearly twenty years ago.

Her creator, known simply as 'the Professor', didn't fully understand the circumstances surrounding her disappearance, but constantly blamed herself for it nonetheless.

It began, she suspected, when their beloved cat, Sakamoto, died. What made this particularly difficult for both of them was the fact that the Professor had been able to give him the linguistic skills of a human, but not the lifespan of one. It was a particularly disastrous combination, as understanding him allowed them to become closer to him than most people would be to their cat, which only made things worse when they lost him.

Just a couple of weeks after the incident, Nano expressed a desire to go for a walk, which the Professor wouldn't have allowed had she known that it would be the last she'd see of her creation.

Years later, the Professor had gone from an energetic child prodigy with an enthusiasm for sharks to a reclusive mad scientist with one hell of an enthusiasm for sharks. As such, it was only logical that she'd create as many robotic sharks as she could fit into one tank. At one point, she considered giving Sakamoto's speech-granting scarf to one of them, but then remembered that it had been locked away forever, in a box labeled 'My Greatest Mistake'.

After a while, she found herself writing 'second' on that label, scrunched up between 'my' and 'greatest'.  
This is why, when she heard someone knocking at the door, she was immediately overcome with unfathomable happiness, the likes of which she hadn't experienced in over a decade.

"Nano!" She strapped on a pair of jet boots she once made while incredibly bored, and rushed towards the front door at inhuman speeds. "Nano, I missed you!"

She pressed a button next to the door.

The door slid open.

A familiar strand of black hair became visible.

The Professor's grin grew wider...

...before changing into a fierce glare.

"Hey Doc!" Yukko waved cheerfully. "Remember us?"

The Professor briefly considered installing an ordinary door to slam in people's faces.

"We were looking for Mio, and I figured we could ask Nano." She continued. "Can we speak to her?"

"Nano isn't here!" the Professor snapped, dragging the door shut as forcefully as possible.

"Welp..." Yukko turned away from the door and pouted. "Also, thanks a lot, Mai. You contributed so much by not saying anything to your super-ultra-great-delicious-wonderful-best friend. Did something happen between you two or what?"

"I..." Mai blinked for what felt like the first time that day. "...I don't know."

* * *

A/N: So in the end, Azuhamlet didn't get frigged and The Ascent of Haruhi Suzumiya did. Whatevs.


End file.
